stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of that, and determined me to give the silver; and he finished so admirably, that I emptied my pocket wholly into the collector's dish, gold* and all.”

No wonder that such a preacher should be admired and followed in a country where the habits of the people were devotional. On his second visit to Scotland, he was met on the shore at Leith by multitudes, weeping and blessing him, and they followed his coach to Edinburgh, pressing to welcome him when he alighted, and to hold him in their arms. Seats, with awnings, were erected in the park, in the form of an amphitheatre, for his preaching. Several youths left their parents and masters to follow him as his servants and children in the Gospel; but he had sense enough to show them their error, and send them back. The effect which he produced was maddening. At Cambuslang it exceeded any thing which he had ever witnessed in his career.

preached at two," he says, "to a vast body of people, and at six in the evening, and again at nine. Such a commotion, surely, never was heard of, especially at eleven at night. For about an hour and a half there was such weeping, so many falling into deep distress, and expressing it various ways, as is inexpressible. The people seem to be slain by scores. They are carried off, and come into the house, like soldiers wounded in and carried off a field of battle. Their cries and agonies are exceedingly affecting. Mr. M. preached, after I had ended, till past one in the morning, and then could scarce persuade them to depart. All night, in the fields, might be heard the voice of prayer and praise. Some young

* "At this sermon," continues Franklin, "there was also one of our club, who, being of my sentiments respecting the building in Georgia, and suspecting a collection might be intended, had, by precaution, emptied his pockets before he came from home: towards the conclusion of the discourse, however, he felt a strong inclination to give, and applied to a neighbour, who stood near him, to lend him some money for the purpose. The request was fortunately made to perhaps the only man in the company who had the firmness not to be affected by the preacher. His answer was, 6 At any other time, friend Hopkinson, I would lend to thee freely, but not now: for thee seems to me to be out of thy right senses." "

ladies were found by a gentlewoman praising God at break of day she went and joined with them."Soon afterwards he returned there to assist at the sacrament. "Scarce ever," he says, "was such a sight seen in Scotland. There were, undoubtedly, upwards of twenty thousand persons. Two tents were set up, and the holy sacrament was administered in the fields. When I began to serve a table, the power of God was felt by numbers; but the people crowded so upon me, that I was obliged to desist, and go to preach at one of the tents, whilst the ministers served the rest of the tables. God was with them, and with his people. There was preaching all day ́· by one or another; and in the evening, when the sacrament was over, at the request of the ministers, I preached to the whole congregation. I preached about an hour and a half. Surely it was a time much to be remembered. On Monday morning I preached again to near as many; but such an universal stir I never saw before. The motion fled as swift as lightning from one end of the auditory to another. might have seen thousands bathed in tears: some at the same time wringing their hands, others almost swooning, and others crying out and mourning over a pierced Saviour."

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The Erskines were astonished at all this. One of the associate presbytery published a pamphlet against him, wherein, with the true virulence of bigotry, he ascribed these things to the influence of the devil; and the heads of the seceders appointed a public fast, to humble themselves for his being in Scotland, whither they themselves had invited him, and for what they termed the delusion at Cambuslang. They might have so called it, with more propriety, if they had not been under a delusion themselves; for Whitefield perfectly understood their feelings, when he said, "all this, because I would not consent to preach only for them till I had light into, and could take the solemn league and covenant!" He made many other visits to Scotland; and there, indeed, he seems to have obtained that introduction to persons of rank, which in its consequences led to

the establishment of a college for Calvinistic Methodism in England. But he aimed at nothing more than could be produced by his own preaching; it was neither congenial to his talents nor his views to organize a body of followers; and, in the intervals between his visits, the seed which he had scattered was left to grow up, or to wither as it might.

Wesley had other views: his aim, wherever he went, was to form a society. It was not till ten years after his former colleague had first visited Scotland, that he resolved to go there. A reconciliation had then taken place between them,-for enmity could not be lasting between two men who knew each other's sincerity and good intentions so well,—and Whitefield would have dissuaded him from going. "You have no business there," he said; " for your principles are so well known, that, if you spoke like an angel, none would hear you; and if they did, you would have nothing to do but to dispute with one and another from morning to night." Wesley replied, "If God sends me, people will hear. And I will give them no provocation to dispute; for I will studiously avoid controverted points, and keep to the fundamental truths of Christianity; and if any still begin to dispute, they may, but I will not dispute with them." He was, however so aware of the bitter hostility with which Arminian principles would be received in Scotland, that, he says, when he went into that kingdom, he had no intention of preaching there; nor did he imagine that any person would desire him so to do. He might have reckoned with more confidence upon the curiosity of the people. He was invited to preach at Musselborough; the audience remained like statues from the beginning of the sermon till the end, and he flattered himself that "the prejudice which the devil had been several years planting, was torn up by the roots in one hour." From this time Scotland was made a part of his regular rounds. "Surely," says he," with God nothing is impossible! Who would have believed, five-andtwenty years ago, either that the minister would have

desired it, or that I should have consented to preach in a Scotch kirk !"

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He flattered himself egregiously when he accepted these beginnings as omens of good success, and when he supposed that the prejudice against him was eradicated. An old Burgher minister at Dalkeith preached against him, affirming that, if he died in his present sentiments, he would be damned; and the fanatic declared that he would stake his own salvation upon it. It was well for him that these people were not armed with temporal authority. "The Seceders," says Wesley, "who have fallen in my way, are more uncharitable than the Papists themselves. I never yet met a Papist who avowed the principle of murdering heretics. But a Seceding minister being asked, Would not you, if it was in your power, cut the throats of all the Methodists?" replied directly, Why, did not Samuel hew Agag in pieces before the Lord?' I have not yet met a Papist in this kingdom who would tell me to my face, all but themselves must be damned; but I have seen Seceders enough who make no scruple to affirm, none but themselves could be saved. And this is the natural consequence of their doctrine; for, as they hold that we are saved by faith alone, and that faith is the holding such and such opinions, it follows, all who do not hold those opinions have no faith, and therefore cannot be saved." Even Whitefield, predestinarian as he was, was regarded as an abomination by the Seceders: how, then, was it possible that they should tolerate Wesley, who taught that redemption was offered to all mankind? A Methodist one day comforted a poor woman, whose child appeared to be dying, by assuring her that, for an infant, death would only be the exchange of this miserable life for a happy eternity; and the Seceder, to whose flock she belonged, was so shocked at this doctrine, that the deep-dyed Calvinist devoted the next Sabbath to the task of convincing his people, that the souls of all non-elect infants were doomed to certain and inevitable damnation.

But it was Wesley's fortune to meet with an obstacle in Scotland more fatal to Methodism than the fiercest opposition would have been. Had his followers been more generally opposed, they would have multiplied faster: opposition would have inflamed their zeal; it was neglected, and died away. From time to time he complains in his Journal of the cold insensibility of the people. "O what a difference is there between the living stones," he says, speaking of the Northumbrians, and the dead unfeeling multitudes in Scotland. At Dundee," he observes, "I admire the people; so decent, so serious, and so perfectly unconcerned !" "At Glasgow I preached on the Old Green to a people, the greatest part of whom hear much, know every thing, and feel nothing." They had been startled by the thunder and lightning of Whitefield's oratory; but they were as unmoved by the soft persuasive rhetoric of Wesley, as by one of their own Scotch mists.

Wesley endeavoured to account for this mortifying failure, and to discover "what could be the reason why the hand of the Lord (who does nothing without a cause) was almost entirely stayed in Scotland." He imputed it to the unwillingness of those, who were otherwise favourably inclined, to admit the preaching of illiterate men; and to the rude bitterness and bigotry of those who regarded an Arminian as an Infidel, and the church of England as bad as the church of Rome. The Scotch bigots, he said, were beyond all others. He answered, before a large congregation at Dundee, most of the objections which had been made to him. He was a member of the church of England, he said, but he loved good men of every church. He always used a short private prayer when he attended the public service of God why did not they do the same? was it not according to the bible? He stood whenever he was singing the praises of God in public: were there not plain precedents for this in Scripture? He always knelt before the Lord when he prayed in public; and generally, in public, he used the Lord's Prayer, because Christ has taught us, when we pray, to say,